SIU takes aim at Hlaudi Motsoeneng for challenging court findings
Image: Picture: Matthews Baloyi / January 28, 2015
The head of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), Andy Mothibi, confirmed on Wednesday that the agency plans to request appropriate costs against former SABC CEO Hlaudi Motsoeneng following his appeal to the Constitutional Court challenging previous adverse findings made against him.
This development comes after Motsoeneng filed an application for leave to appeal to the apex court, subsequent to the SIU successfully overturning a R11.5 million bonus awarded to him, which must now be repaid.
Briefing the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), Mothibi said Motsoeneng was challenging their findings from lower courts to the Supreme Court of Appeal all the way to the Constitutional Court.
'He is going back to the Constitutional Court to review or rescind their judgment. This is where we will be qualified to say there is abuse of court process. We will ask for appropriate costs,' he said.
Mothibi charged that Motsoeneng was really abusing the legal process.
'This is really to show that, to a greater extent, he really believes that either he should not be investigated. I can't just put my head onto it.'
However, Mothibi said anyone has the right to legal recourse.
'It is his right to challenge the findings that are adverse to him. In the context of litigation process, I am of the view he is really abusing the legal process, particularly once the Constitutional Court has made a ruling,' he said.
Mothibi made the comments when the SIU briefed Scopa about the investigations it has conducted at the SABC.
The investigations emanated from proclamations authorised between 2010 and 2024.
Chief national investigating officer Zodwa Xesibe told the MPs that a proclamation was issued in 2017 following a parliamentary inquiry into the SABC affairs.
Xesibe said the investigation covered contracts, including the sale of the public broadcaster's archives.
SIU legal counsel Ntuthuzelo Vanara said one of the matters related to the R11.5 million bonus paid to Motsoeneng as 'success fee' that was set aside.
'The bonus amount increased from R11.5m because of interest to R18m. Of that amount, there has been R6m that would have been paid from his pension benefit.
"We finalised this matter,' Vanara said.
However, the court had ordered Motsoeneng's legal fees paid by SABC be repaid to the tune of R1.2m.
'He had apparently used SABC to pay his personal matters with a personal attorney. We recovered R851 981 together with interest.'
The former CEO lost an appeal bid and SABC pension fund payout to the tune of R6.4m.
Vanara also said a R52m contract with Vision View was set aside and R7m contract with Mott MacDonald, among others.
In a presentation to the Scopa, the SIU reported that Mjayeli Security was appealing a court decision that set aside the contract it was awarded after it was found to have come second in the winning bidders.
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